Sanjeev Gupta, Executive Chairman of steel and aluminium investment company GFG Alliance, will head the roster at the London Metal Exchange's virtual seminar this year, the LME announced on August 28.The virtual seminar will start on Monday October 19, 2020 and replaces the annual LME week gathering of metal market participants in London, which has been canceled amid the Covid-19 pandemic.Gupta ha...Read More
After five months of roaring demand for pig iron in China, market sources have started to doubt whether buying activity there will continue. In March, when the steel industry in Europe and the United States had only started to face the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, China began to recover, resuming normal operating rates and starting to absorb almost all available spot pig iron volumes from the...Read More
Aluminium billet premiums inched higher in Germany, Spain and Brazil on Friday August 28 as demand in those countries improved, while premiums in the United States, Italy and Thailand were steady.Some European premiums rise ahead of Q4 talks Several billet premiums in Europe rose on Friday, with demand starting to increase and sentiment turning slightly more bullish as a result. The uptrend c...Read More
South American flat-rolled steel import prices ended the week on Friday August 28 showing no clear trend because deals for October-shipment cargoes were very scarce, and customers were still waiting to hear offers for November shipments.Demand was improving in the region from recent lows caused by Covid-19-related restrictions, but market participants believed that consumption had yet to return to...Read More
Key data from the pricing sessions in Europe, Asia and the United States for the week ended Friday August 28.China The low end of domestic prices moved up by 50 yuan ($7) per tonne on higher offers and tight spot availability, amid buoyed sentiment...Read More
After five months of roaring demand for pig iron in China, market sources have started to doubt whether buying activity there will continue. In March, when the steel industry in Europe and the United States had only started to face the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, China began to recover, resuming normal operating rates and starting to absorb almost all available spot pig iron volumes from the...Read More
Lead stocks in Shanghai Futures Exchange-registered warehouses fell the most in percentage terms in the week to Friday August 28, dropping by 14.9% or 4,823 tonnes to 27,580 tonnes. The outflows mainly came from warehouses operated by Nanchu in Guangdong, with a decline of 2,766 tonnes to 25,963 tonnes. This follows a decline of 4.5% in lead stocks the previous week. "In China, vehicle productio...Read More
The London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price continued to gain during the morning session on Friday August 28, trading up 1.2% from the previous day's close at $15,340 per tonne, its highest since November 2019.Often considered a proxy for the Asian markets, nickel has continued to trend higher of late on near-term demand from China's industrial sector and ongoing speculative rhetoric from t...Read More
Slab export prices from Brazil increased in the week ended Friday August 28 amid low volumes available and a continued recovery in demand.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel slab, export, fob main port Brazil was $430-435 per tonne on Friday, up by $10 from $420-430 per tonne a week earlier.There were reports of offers from Brazil made near $440 per tonne fob, after...Read More
Indian steel mills were likely to increase their domestic hot-rolled coil prices by about 2,000-3,000 rupees ($27-41) per tonne in September, with local demand for the commodity continuing to grow, Fastmarkets heard on Friday August 28.Officials from two Indian private-sector mills have confirmed that they have already given guidance to their dealers to impose a 2,000-3,000 rupees per tonne price...Read More
Three-month prices for all base metals on the London Metal Exchange except lead rose on Friday August 28, with nickel leading the rally.Fastmarkets analyst Andy Farida attributed Friday's rally to market reaction to a speech by US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell on Thursday August 27. Powell signaled to the market that the US Federal Reserve will relax its inflation target of 2% in a bid to...Read More
Fastmarkets copper concentrates treatment charges and refining charges (TC/RC) index stayed largely flat at its multi-year low level from a week ago.The spot market has been relatively quiet this week with smelters buying a handful of clean concentrates parcels in the high $40s, while some deals, with tonnages extending into the fourth quarter this year and first quarter next year, are said to be...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their latest price moves.Read More
Lead stocks in Shanghai Futures Exchange-registered warehouses fell the most in percentage terms in the week to Friday August 28, dropping by 14.9% or 4,823 tonnes to 27,580 tonnes. The outflows mainly came from warehouses operated by Nanchu in Guangdong, with a decline of 2,766 tonnes to 25,963 tonnes. This follows a decline of 4.5% in lead stocks the previous week. "In China, vehicle productio...Read More
The first deal for the supply of aluminium to main Japanese ports (MJP) for the fourth quarter has concluded at a premium of $83 per tonne cif MJP, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday August 28.The deal was for up to 1,500 tonnes of aluminium ingot in total for October-December delivery, with 500 tonnes to be delivered each month, and is on top of the London Metal Exchange cash price...Read More
Sanjeev Gupta, Executive Chairman of steel and aluminium investment company GFG Alliance, will head the roster at the London Metal Exchange's virtual seminar this year, the LME announced on August 28.The virtual seminar will start on Monday October 19, 2020 and replaces the annual LME week gathering of metal market participants in London, which has been canceled amid the Covid-19 pandemic.Gupta ha...Read More
Daily PDFs will be downloadable until Monday August 31. After that, because of the UK's Summer bank holiday, the next daily PDF will be downloadable on Wednesday September 2.Read More
Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States have risen above $25 per hundredweight ($500 per short ton) for the first time since mid-June thanks to a recent round of price increases bolstered by healthy demand. Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $25.03 per cwt ($500.60 per ton) on Friday August 28, up by 0.5% from $24.90 per cwt on Thursday August 27 and...Read More
Prices for domestic steel beams in the United States were flat on Thursday August 27, while prices for imported products fell for a second month in a row on weakening demand, sources said.Fastmarkets' assessment for steel beams 8 x 8-inch, fob mill US held at $35.25 per hundredweight ($705 per short ton) on Thursday, unchanged for a fourth consecutive month.Most sources reported that demand was st...Read More
European distributors of flat steel products reported a 16.50% year-on-year drop in shipment volumes in June, regional steel industry association Eurometal said on Friday August 28.The decrease was less than an earlier fall in May of this year, when shipments dropped by 38.50%.In the first half of 2020, shipment volumes of flat steel products from European steel service centers dropped by 21.8% ye...Read More